By Katalina Siasau

The damage assessment on Tonga's domestic submarine fibre-optic cable will be delayed by at least a week, while the repair ship has stopped in Fiji, on its way to Tonga, Tonga Cable Ltd said today.

In the meantime, telephone and internet services to Vava'u and Ha'apai continue to feel the impact of the cable blackout that occured on 29 June.

Tonga Cable Ltd. CEO Semisi Panuve told Matangi Tonga today that the cable repair ship had encountered an issue and remained stuck in Fiji.

"The repair ship is in Fiji. It was supposed to depart yesterday in order to arrive in Tonga today. However, there was an issue with the ship so it needed to stay in Fiji, and to get fuel, replenish, and fill up supplies."

"As for now, we can't confirm when the repair ship will depart Fiji, so, the works will have to be delayed a week," he said.

The ship has come from Singapore to analyse the damage to the submarine cable.

Tonga Cable Acting CEO, Sosafate Kolo told a media conference on 5 July, that the cause of the disruption to the cable is unknown. It is suspected that multiple landslides resulting from an earthquake caused the cable damage. 

It is known that two faults on the cable are located at 73 km and 96 km from Tongatapu. Tonga Cable Ltd. believed the cable was suppressed at 73 km from Tongatapu, while at 96 km, the cable was completely cut.

If the damage to the cable is found to be more than 50 kilometres, the repair will have to be postponed for many months.

See also: Vava'u and Ha'apai suffer third cable blackout [2]